


Everything's Haunted

by Cas_s_Honeybee, Dgray3994



Series: Blame it on Singer Series [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dean Winchester (mentioned) - Freeform, Jody doesn't get along with OC usually, Mostly the girls in this one, Not sure what it is this time, Other, Sam Winchester (mentioned) - Freeform, motw, supernatural monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:03:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21616624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cas_s_Honeybee/pseuds/Cas_s_Honeybee, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dgray3994/pseuds/Dgray3994
Summary: Jai and Gwen are at home, until a call comes in about a case in Western Mass. Bobby hates when Jai works alone so she's send in back-up, but Jai isn't going to like who's standing at her door. Gwen can only do so much from their home two hours east but that doesn't mean that she can't help. And besides, it's probably the only hunt so far that they can't blame on Bobby Singer.
Series: Blame it on Singer Series [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1210602





	Everything's Haunted

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick Thanksgiving week one-shot because Nano was wrapping up and I needed a distraction.

Everything’s haunted

**Jai**

I closed the hotel room door and put my back to it. Slowly, my eyes closed, head tipped back against the wood and I dropped the backpack and duffle to the ground, sighing out a breath I felt like I had been holding forever.

I hated Western Mass. Hated it more than I disliked Dean, and that was saying something. Well, maybe it wasn’t saying enough because my feelings for the older Winchester brother had changed over the course of the last year and a half, so maybe... no, I was pretty sure I couldn’t use that as a point of reference anymore but I really truly hated this part of the state.

I wasn’t sure what possessed me to actually take the case I was now standing on in Northampton, maybe it was the whole need to get out of the house and run, or the fact that I had been home too much. Not that being at Gwen’s place was bad, she did have like four libraries, and a huge game room, and by game I mean there’s bowling lanes there somewhere, I just hadn’t found them yet, but I wasn’t the kind of person to sit still, so when the call came in, I went out.

It was less than a two hour drive, especially with the local daily that I had when we were back at base. No stealing of cars while we were home, kind of an unwritten rule because of how closely we worked with some of the police departments in the area, so with the 2016 - best on fuel and highway miles - Acura underneath me, I was on my way in no time. 

Apparently there was a haunting. Okay… maybe it wasn’t exactly a haunting, in fact, they didn’t even know what the hell was going on, but when the call went out, hunters… blah, blah, blah. So, here I stood, rambling in my head. It was a nice place, save for the creepy ass guy who asked if he could take my bags when I checked in. There was just something about him that set me off, but I couldn’t just whip out the EMF and scan him, I mean I could have but they asked me to be discreet and that wouldn’t have gone over well.

Pushing off the door, I managed to slip off my shoes, easy enough to lace them up when I put them on, simple enough to kick them off when I was done and made my way over to the single, double bed that waited for me in the middle of the room. Shucking off my coat, I let it drop to the floor as I pulled the gun from the back of my jeans, the blade from my hip and the phone from my back pocket. I tossed the blade on the nightstand, gun on the bed beside me and redialed the last call that I had made out. Which went right to Gwen.

_ “Hello,”  _ and it wasn’t even a nice hello, it was a grumpy, someone obviously upended your Axolotl, kind of greeting that made me smirk. She never disappointed. I sighed as I face-planted into the softness of the bed and listened to her clear her throat.  _ “Jai, I have about three other calls to make…” _

“Calls?” I sat up, putting my weight down on my elbows, “you never make calls! Who the hell are you talking to?”

“ _ Bobby for one,”  _ she explained as her tone changed,  _ “Sam called,”  _ and this got my attention,  _ “and there’s someone named Eileen that keeps trying to Skype.” _

“Eileen’s cool, but she really does need to see you in order to figure shit out,” I shrugged and rolled over in order to stare at the ceiling. “That whole ASL thing doesn’t translate well on a phone call.”

_ “I know why she’s using video,” _ Gwen snarked and I laughed because her getting irritated was just too funny.  _ “So, talk.” _

“What am I doing here?” I crossed my arms over my stomach, and shook my head. “This looks like any other damn hotel in the downtown area.The Hotel Northampton is not special.”

_ “It is, actually,”  _ I could hear the shuffling of papers on her desk, the one she was constantly set to burn every time she went looking for something, and waited for her to find the thing she had in her hand probably five minutes ago. She was very organized, really knew how to find stuff when it came down to the wire, and she was great with research, but when it came to her own desk at home, forget it, and it only seemed to happen to me.  _ “According to the documentation, the hotel itself isn’t the cause of the hauntings but what went on underneath it. Eighty-three years ago, an old tunnel system that apparently runs the length of the city in a grid formation was found to have an entrance under the hotel. That was it’s starting point. There were no plans of this system and it ran so low below ground level that there had never been a point where construction crews hit it.” _

“Grid formation,” I raised my fingers to my nose and pinched the bridge as I closed my eyes, picturing the city. “That makes sense, the buildings are set on specific sections so there would never be a point where it would hit.”

_ “Precisely,” _ she shuffled a little bit more and I could hear her falling back in the chair as she nearly growled on the line.

“Text message?” I smirked. “Let me guess, Bobby again?”

_ “Dean. Whatever the boys are into, they can’t seem to find their way out. Like a mouse in a box.” _ I shook my head, not even sure I understood that analogy, couldn’t the mouse just chew it’s way out?  _ “The opening gave officials the means to investigate strange disappearances in the area, solving nearly sixty cold cases of missing individuals, and that was only covering about seventy percent of the tunnel system.” _

“And, I come in how?” 

_ “The other thirty percent is behind a door that falls right below the hotel.”  _

I sat up, shook my head to get the images I had been storing out and sighed. “I didn’t realize I was going cave diving when I got here. I didn’t get all of my stuff.”

_ “The door is open, you won’t be alone.” _

“You’re coming out here? I mean, you never leave home when it’s within two hours of the house and you usually stay out of Western Mass more than I do, so unless you’re coming out yourself, I don’t want… nor do I need a partner.” I snapped, stood up from the bed and made my way over to the window, looking out at the city.

_ “This isn’t just a haunted hotel.” _

“No, it’s Northampton, everything is haunted!” I argued. “The sheer amount of historic buildings alone give this place a ten-point-nine on the creep-o-meter and I’m pretty sure that only goes up to five.” Letting the curtain drop, I moved back to the bed and sat down, eyes going up to the ceiling again. “So I'm investigating the tunnels?”

_ “You’re investigating the disappearance of two members of the housekeeping staff whose last known location was the laundry room which is located in the basement. That was three days ago, what we were called in for was the fact that one of them has already been seen on the first floor of the building.” _

“Oh, great, so she’s alive, case solved. Can I go home now?”

_ “She was seen walking through a wall.” _

“Well, son of a bitch,” I huffed and rolled my neck, hearing it pop as I relaxed. “I was told by management not to start hunting around until after nine, it’s six now, I’m going to get dinner. Let me know if anything else pops up. Or not.”

_ “Fine, I have to get back to Bobby, and possibly Sam now that he’s also texted again.”  _ Gwen paused for a moment.  _ “Be careful.” _

“You sound worried.” I couldn’t stop the sarcastic smile that rose on my lips. “You think I’m in over my head?”

_ “I think you’re a self-destructive little asshole who runs in headfirst and couldn’t care less about the consequences, so yes, you may certainly be in over your head.”  _ She said it as if it were nothing out of the ordinary and that alone made me laugh.  _ “Be… Careful.” _

“Yes, ma’am.” I listened to the call disconnect, and glanced around the room. Time to get unpacked and more or less organized. This was going to be fun.

~~~~~

**Gwen**

I sat back in the seat, not nearly as convinced as I should be that she wasn’t going to do exactly what she did every time, which was to put her life on the line just to get that adrenaline rush. I didn’t tell her who I was sending in, didn’t know if it would work out that well if she knew, but I also knew there was no way I could send her in on this one alone.

The phone beside me rang again, and I ran a hand down my face, hoping to hell it wasn’t her calling back again, but when I picked it up and looked at the caller ID, Bobby’s name scrolled across the screen.

I hit accept, than speaker because I hated holding it to my ear, it impeded the use of my hands and it wasn’t as if there were anyone here to eavesdrop. The one I had to worry about was already on the job.

“Bobby,” and while I intended it as a question, it came out more of just a monotone acknowledgement of his name.

_ “You send that girl out already?” _ The fact that he still referred to her as  _ that girl _ when he called made me honestly believe he would never let her grow up, no matter how many times she reminded him that she wasn’t a child.

“Yes, she’s already at the hotel. Have you heard from Jody?” I stood, grabbed the phone, which meant plugging in the headset and headed toward the dining room, out of the darkened office space. 

Two hunters, both with minor injuries and some bruising, waved from the large table as I passed. I nodded in their direction and made my way towards the other end of the house, where the staircase curved up to the second floor. Bobby grumbled, like playing the middle-man was something he hated, even when he actually played the part everyday. 

_ “She grabbed the rental about an hour ago, so she should be hitting the hotel soon. Have you heard from her?” _

“If I had, I wouldn’t have asked the question,” I replied, but kept the sarcasm out of my voice, he deserved more respect than that but he knew how it went. “I’m afraid that not letting Jai in on who you’re sending might have dire consequences.”

_ “Nonsense, they need to get over their little feud and be adults.”  _ His tone was different, he seemed… off. 

“Bobby, is everything alright?” I stopped halfway up the stairs and listened to the silence on the other line. “Bobby?”

_ “Just a minute,” _ he huffed and it went quiet again, before there was a loud crash that made me rip one of the earbuds out. _ “Sorry, was having a bit of a time with a bolt.” _

“You’re working on a car while on a call?” I felt confused but continued up the stairs, turning right at the banister to head towards one of the libraries on the second floor.

_ “Well, no, I’m fixing up a hole that Dean left in the garage the last time he was here, seems he and Jai had it out and the wrench he was using went flying.” _ Bobby gruffed, making a noise that sounded as if he were having difficulty with the tool.  _ “When they get back here, I’m going to give each of them a piece of my mind.” _

“I need to call Sam.” I replied, which was really just a reminder to myself.

_ “He need you?” _ Bobby questioned, but the you came out more like a “cha” sound.

“Not according to their texts, they were just checking in.” I wasn’t going to tell him that they were on the trail of a Mora, which was stupid for them to even try to hunt since she preferred men to women, but they were the Winchesters. “Can you give Jody this number again, I’d like to cut out the middle man, no offense, and keep track of them as they go through the systems.”

_ “No offense taken, I’d actually prefer that myself.”  _ Bobby sighed, and I could hear the squeak of the spring from the kitchen’s screen door.  _ “I’ll let you know when she gets to Jai, unless you hear from the wild one herself first.” _

“I’m pretty sure we’ll both hear something,”I sighed and closed the library door behind me. There, on one of the large 82 inch screens was the current layout of the Hotel Northampton, followed by the unfinished grid blueprints for the tunnel system. “Take care, Bobby.”

_ “You too, don’t need to hear that she got you all killed.”  _ He sighed, and I knew there was something he wasn’t telling me.  _ “Bye.” _

“Bye, bye.” I replied and listened to the line go dead. Something about this wasn’t right.

~~~~~

**Jai**

I rolled over, blinked away the sleep and listened to the persistent knocking on the door. It had only been an hour according to the bright red numbers on the clock and I slowly sat up. The events of the day came back like molasses and pushing up from the bed, I made my way on unsteady feet to the door. 

Swinging it open without looking, I came face to face with someone that I never thought I would ever see again, and her expression was one that mirrored mine. I looked up towards the ceiling, a muted roll of my eyes and turned back into the room, leaving the door for her to keep open herself. 

Jody followed, no words exchanged and set her duffle on the floor beside mine as I scooted back onto the bed. I could tell where she was in the room without looking and I knew if I turned over, she’d be standing there with her arms crossed leaning against the dresser. She was old enough to be my sister, just a few years off from Dean, but Jody had seen some shit, just like the rest of us. 

With a sigh, knowing at some point I’d have to address the elephant in the room, I turned over onto my back, braced my weight against my elbows and looked her over. She had jetlag, you could see it in her face, and must have caught a flight right after Bobby called, because there was no way she would be here if Bobby hadn’t asked.

“Grab a shower and a few hours if you want,” I shrugged, “can’t do nothing until nine anyway.”

“Jai,” she started, and I knew that voice, the one I had been listening to for the last decade. I raised my hand, closed my eyes and hoped to hell that it would silence her. She always needed to feel the superior, the one in charge or even  _ in the know _ but I hated when she did that. “We really need to…”

“To what?” I snapped, sitting up fully, clenching fists because there was really nothing Jody and I  _ needed _ from each other. “Need to get over it, passed it, around it?” I shrugged. “It was six years ago, Jodes, six long, drawn out years, and I’m good with leaving it there.”

“I’m not,” she ran a hand down her face. “I don’t like that you feel you have to stay away because of me.”

I scoffed, got off the bed and padded, barefoot to the fridge to grab a soda from the door. Just before falling asleep, I managed to unload the cooler that Jeebs (not really his name, but just one that I couldn’t help calling him, his real name was Dan…  _ Dan the Butler. _ ) had packed for the road. Snatching the small snack wrap from the door as well, I tore off the paper wrapper and took a bite.

“You give yourself way too much credit there, Sheriff,” I snarked and sat down on the bed, “I’m not staying away because of you, trust me.”

“Then what’s your problem?” She tossed her hands up in an exasperated motion and started to pace, but that tone of voice brought back flashes of blood, knives, and I shook my head as the screams echoed in my ears. I drew in a deep breath, steadied my heart and stared up at her. Jody came to rest against the dresser again. “What?”

“I told you to drop it.” I stated as monotoned as I could before I finished the wrap and tossed the paper towards the trash. Standing once more, I made my way to the table, yanked my journal out and started fishing through the information Gwen had given me, including layouts of the hotel and tunnels, which made me realize that I hadn’t even looked at them before. Would have taken away some of the shock of having to go down into them. “This is what I got,” I stepped back, letting her see what was in front of her. “Ghosts, I guess, something under the hotel is taking people and killing them. Kinda sucks, but we’ve got about thirty percent of this tunnel system to figure out.”

“That’s it?” Jody whispered, leaning in to look over the prints.

“You need more than that?” I huffed and moved away, “how about this, sixty cold cases were solved the moment they explored the rest of the tunnels, and with the amount of people who’ve gone missing in this area since then, can you imagine the bodies down there?”

“I’d rather not.” She shifted, eyeing over the evidence before she turned back to me. “When do we start? You said nine, right?”

“Yeah, but I got stuff to do, so you can chill or you can come with,” I shrugged at her, grabbing my shoes as she thought it over. It was hard not to let everything out, but I knew that if I did it now, she would just up and bail, so I kept it in. “Pass me my bag, will ya?”

With the backpack in hand, I fished through the pockets, digging deep to find the small box before I placed one on the bed and handed her the other. Jody looked at the ear pods with uncertainty and raised a brow.

“Gwen’s testing a new prototype,” I shrugged, “I guess you don’t even have to really whisper for these things to pick up your voice. So she can hear everything going on around you, but the moment you speak, the noise reduction kicks in and all she’ll hear is you. Something to keep Bobby and the boys from freaking out when I’m on cases alone.” I didn’t know why I was explaining it all to her, there wasn’t any reason for it but I needed to get it out there. “Dean… ah,” but that was the end of that train of thought. “I’m going out.”

The main street in Northampton wasn’t much of a sight, it didn’t differ much from the other places I had been, but the confines of the hotel room with Jody Mills taking up too much space, well, downtown was starting to look like Vegas to me. She followed, of course, but it was a comfortable silence, just like I liked them, especially when I made my way down Market Street and headed straight for the  _ closed _ bookstore.

Jody snickered behind me at the name but I didn’t find it very amusing at all and the irony of “Gabriel Books” wasn’t lost on me either. With a deep breath, I pushed it open, stepped down the aisle crowded two rows deep with old hardcovers and paperbacks alike, giving a nod to the man behind the desk as we headed straight for the back.

Around the corner of the mythology section, down past the clearance, I slipped in through a heavy curtain that kept the heat in the small room before turning abruptly right and descending down the narrow staircase into the well-heated basement of the establishment. I could hear the noises Jody made behind me, the soft clearing of her throat trying to grab my attention, or the huffs she was making trying to keep up but it was the intake of breath that got me when she finally found herself on solid ground.

The basement was the complete opposite from the floor above. Everything was organized right down to the way the coffee cup was set on a coaster by the three screens on the desk across the room. A portly older man stepped into the room, pulled his glasses just a little further down his nose to see us and snorted.

“Why did I have a feeling they were going to hand this case to you, Lancing?” He sighed, almost annoyed.

“Because, Charlie, they love giving you shit, and what better way to do it than to send me in to get that whole pulmonary edema thing going.” I replied and set the backpack I had been carrying on the ground. Charlie huffed, stepped up closer to me and eyed me over, much like Bobby tended to do when I made it home. After a moment, he reached out and pulled me into an embrace. “Yeah,” I patted him on the back, “it’s good to see you too.”

“Never said that,” he denied as he backed away and glanced over at Jody, “well, now, you’re much better looking than the last hunter she brought in. He was a gangly man, and way too… enthusiastic… for my tastes.”

“Jody Mills,” she introduced holding a hand out from him to shake and I tried to hide the smile as he looked at the extended appendage with distrust. Jody drew it back and tried to be casual about the confusion of being denied, but her eyes snapped to mine when a small giggle escaped.

“Charles,” he nodded, lifting a brow as he turned from her. 

“Don’t take offense, Sheriff,” I grinned, “Charlie’s taste in touching runs more along the lines of the beefier sex, usually about six-foot, green eyes…”

Charlie did a very unmanly  _ ooh _ sound that just made me cough because I knew when I had said it that the man was lusting after Dean. Clearing his throat, he straightened out and quickly turned his blushing face away.

“What brings you here?” He went straight to business and I saw Jody give a slight smile at the playfulness between us before I grabbed the bag and placed it on the counter beside his monitors.

“Okay, down to it, then.” I shrugged and yanked the journal out of the bag. Charlie eyed me over his glasses before taking the journal. He flipped through the pages until he hit the one that was marked by the small post it. Going over it thoroughly, he nodded, um-hummed and made several other noises that I could have guessed was approval. “Coffee?”

“Oh, yes, right where I left it.” He replied without looking up. I glanced at Jody, giving her just a look, wondering if she wanted one, but she was too set on watching Charlie at the moment. 

“Hey,” I whispered, catching her attention, “coffee?”

“No,” she replied, “thanks.”

“Suit yourself,” I shrugged off her politeness and headed for the back room, straight for that coffee machine. An hour of listening to Charlie talk to himself was almost enough to make me take a nap, but as I reclined in the corner chair, third coffee piping hot in my hand, I noticed that Jody was still looking around. Watching her flashed me back to the blood and gore, the screams the flashes of silver that assaulted my mind before I was able to shake it clean. “Hey, Charlie, I hate to be a bitch, but we gotta get a move on with this thing.”

He twirled his chair around to face me, eyes coming down from wherever the hell it was that he was looking and he rose, journal open in hand. “I think I know what you need.”

“Wonderful,” I mumbled as he quickly left the room. I kicked my feet out, still not moving from the spot and sipped gently on the still piping coffee in my hand as Jody started to look around a little taken aback. The phone in my pocket buzzed, taking me out of the sweet haven the French Vanilla creamer had drawn me into and I gently placed it against my ear, accepting the call. “Lancing.”

_ “Oh, good, you’re alive.”  _ The sarcasm in Gwen’s voice should have offended me, but I knew it was just her way of checking in, though I wish I could have seen her use that same line on the sheriff.

“Yeah, we’re hunky-dory. Chuck’s trying to get a beat on the weapon of choice for this particular case, but I’m sure you knew that already.” I replied, shifting up just a little to place the cup down. “What’s going on, G? Why the phone call? You could have just text.” 

_ “As with everything in life, I like to mix it up a little, besides, I thought letting you know what the Winchesters were up to in person might make your day.” _

“Ah, Sam and Dean, two of my favorite topics.” I grinned, knowing it would get a response from the woman in the room with me and right on cue, she whipped around. “So, spill.”

_ “They’re headed here.”  _ She replied nonchalantly.

“Oh, peachy, and here I am all the way over in Northampton.” I rolled my eyes.

_ “They won’t arrive until tomorrow but I thought you appreciate the heads up.” _

“Well, thank you,” I narrowed my eyes even though she couldn’t see me. “I think... because you never give me advanced anything when it comes to anyone showing up at the manor, what gives?”

_ “This is important, Jai, please understand that when you get back here, we’re going to have to deal with something you might not be completely ready for.” _

I rolled my eyes, “Your foreshadowing sucks, bee-tee-dubs.” I huffed and watched Charlie walk in with a small iron box. “Charlie’s back with a jack-in-the-box. I gotta go. I’ll call you when we start down into the tunnels.”

_ “Do that.”  _ She didn’t growl, or get angry, but those two words were definitely a pointed order. 

I looked at the phone questioningly, then stuffed it back in my pocket once I made sure the screen had shut off. No need to pocket dial anyone that doesn’t need to hear my voice, at least not yet. I cleared my throat and sat forward as Charlie scooted his chair closer.

“Aliens,” that was the first thing he said and he wasn’t even looking at me when he said it, just staring at the box, but I blinked up at Jody. 

_ Yeah, okay. _ I sighed, rubbed my hand against my forehead and cleared my throat before twisting my hands together to prepare for whatever he was talking about. “Right, aliens, of course.”

“You didn’t let me finish,” Charlie pouted and I had to shake my head of the vision of Dean standing there, arms crossed, eyes to the ceiling as he exhaled deeply, praying for patience because that was exactly how I felt. I closed my eyes, willed away all of the things I wanted to say that were probably mean and would get me kicked out on my ass and simply nodded, rolling my hand for him to continue as I decided that holding my coffee might be a better idea than having my hands free. “The Fresco Nightcrawlers,” and then I did roll my eyes. This was one of the cryptos that I actually knew about, “were first reported in 2010, said to be about five feet tall and made up of mostly legs.”

“The stick things?” Jody interrupted for the first time and both Charlie and I turned to look at her. “How would something that doesn’t have arms do all of this?”

“A large jaw.” Charlie replied and I finally stood, placed the coffee down and began to pace because this was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. 

“They’re not Nightcrawlers.” The annoyance in my voice was perfectly clear as I glanced between the both of them. “One, we’re not in California and I know that with the last almost world-ending event not too far in the past that this might come as a surprise, but not everything is a crypto. Somethings are just plain monsters.” I shrugged, and looked at Charlie as he sat up straighter, “and it’s not a Bigfoot either, so get that idea right out of your head.”

“Okay, so not aliens,” Jody crossed her arms, looking at the data on the computer. “What else can it be?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, “but we go in with silver and iron, salt and bullets and we don’t come out until it’s dead.”

“Great plan.” Jody seemed annoyed and that got me to smile despite the tension in the room.

“I know.” I winked, and grabbed my coat, yanking the box from Charlie’s hand on the way by. “What is this anyway?”

“It’s a beacon,” he sat back and looked at it as it began pulsing in my hand, “for the supernatural. It draws them to it. Looks like it’s doing its job.”

“Not a monster,” I snarled, nearly slamming it down on the table. Granted, tea parties weren’t exactly the best thing in the world, but I wasn’t a demon. I turned and moved out of the basement and up the stairs, knowing that Jody wasn’t too far behind me and that thing was in her hand.

~~~~~

Nine p.m. and we stood at the opening of the tunnel system. The door had been behind some moldy wood paneling, tucked behind a metal shelf, and why it wasn’t plainly obvious that there was something back there with the outline right there in full view, well that was beyond me. We had gotten the manager to help move the shelf, one of the maintenance guys to knock it out with a sledge hammer and voila… we were flipping on lights and headed into the darkness.

With a paper map in hand and the GPS up and running on my phone, I glanced up at Jody, hit the call button and slipped the modified earpod in my ear, hooking it around the cartilage so that it basically locked it in place.

_ “Hello,”  _ deadpan as ever, Gwen never disappointed.

“We’re in, oh fearless leader.” I snarked back and heard her scoff.

_ “I’ll be monitoring your progress through the pods and the GPS on your phones. There can’t be more than two miles of tunnel systems down there, you should be fine.”  _ I sighed because Gwen’s ‘should be’ was usually code for ‘be armed and ready.’ I nodded without her being able to see and glanced over at Jody.  _ “Is the Sheriff on the line?” _

“Locked and loaded,” Jody grinned, and of course she had to say that. I’m pretty sure she was hanging out with Dean too much. With a nod from her, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Not knowing what we were dealing with completely was going to suck but we didn’t always have the full information when we went in, sometimes we just winged it.

“All right,” I pulled the gun from the back of my jeans, pulled down the night vision goggles, and balanced it the flashlight along the edge of the slide. “Like they say at the races, and we’re off.”

_ “Like a herd of turtles.” _ Gwen snickered and went silent as we took those first steps into the darkness.

~~~~

**Gwen**

The com had been mostly mumbling between the two women, a this way and that, push and pull of dominance as they scoured the tunnels below Northampton but there hadn’t been anything exciting in nearly an hour. Their voices became background noise, an easy way for me to listen in and get the work done around the manor that needed to be completed. 

With a headset in one ear, the phone in my back pocket and a device in my hands, I roamed the halls, answering the constant questions from hunters around the world. It wasn’t until my secondary device, one mainly used for research started ringing with an incoming Skype call that I made my way back up to the main office on the second floor. 

I answered the phone, hit the text button and typed in  _ hold one moment, please _ as I raced to the top. Once in the room, I tapped the screen on the device and watched the monitors in front of me buzz to life. There in the middle, smiling, was a woman I had yet to meet but knew a lot about, and had only ever communicated through text with.

I placed the device down and waved before using my free hands to use the sign language I had learned years ago. “Hello, Eileen.”

“Hello, Gwen.” She spoke back but also signed. I was okay with whichever was easier for her to continue with. “I’m sorry if I disturbed you.”

“Nonsense, Jai is out on a hunt and I’m just monitoring her progress in case she has questions.” Honesty was always the best policy and as a hunter herself, she would understand the need for safety. 

“How is Jai? She’s always been an interesting character.” Which meant that Eileen was fond of her, not something that unusual in the realm of possibilities, but this was Jai and she had the tendency to be too much for some people.

“She’s well,” I hated small talk, “currently she’s trying not to get herself and Jody Mills shot, or killed.”

_ “I heard that.” _ her voice crackled in my ear, but I ignored the comment.

“Interesting is a new word for her.” I mulled it over for a moment before Eileen slipped off camera, and then slowly back in.

_ “Heard that too.” _

“There’s a reason I called, and I’m sorry this isn’t more of a social visit.” As much as I would have loved to enjoy the screentime and brush up on my rusty ASL skills, the thought of actually doing a Skype call for reasons other than business made me… annoyed. Social visits were not my thing. “I have a problem I had hoped you could help me with.”

“I can give it a look, see what I can come up with, what do you have?” 

That was an hour ago.

It turned out that Eileen wasn’t a simple case. It was complicated, which I liked and a monster that we didn’t really run into very often. How she attracted the strange ones was beyond me but she managed nonetheless. 

It turned out that she was working with a mutual hunter friend, one Guy Perry, which I was pretty sure wasn’t his name in the slightest, who Jai and I had become acquainted with on a hunt in Juniper, Florida. The man was more of a beach bum than a hunter, but he was also the master of blending in.

He could go from homeless surfer to Federal agent without so much as a blink, as if there were more than one personality living in his body and for once, Jai was the one getting whiplash. She liked him well enough… enough to disappear with him for two hours before returning said hunter a little bit shell shocked. This was way before Jai got involved with Sam, but it was still a memory I would like to forget. 

Guy had become just a little obsessed for months after, until one day, when he called, she answered the call, and handed it straight to Bobby. The old man, who was sitting across the kitchen table from her, narrowed his eyes, because the rule was there was no answering the phones during dinner time, an odd rule for hunters. Bobby laid into the man as Jai calmly continued with her stew and I sat back in awe.

Guy never called her again.

So now Eileen is working with him, and while she insists he’s been nothing but a gentleman, I did put in a warning for her to just watch her contact. Just like Jai, she smiled, said she had it handled and hinted that she knew a man who would put his ass in the ground should he mess around with her. I was pretty positive that she was talking about Sam.

The call ended, and I sat back in the chair, quite content with the work I had accomplished and it was now late into the evening, sliding closer to midnight. The line was still open, but quiet, as if the two of them were still tiptoeing around in the tunnels, and I leaned my head back, closing my eyes to concentrate on the noise on the other end.

It felt like hours had passed in the light dream state I had fallen into and suddenly, there was a shot over the line, loud enough that I jumped, eyes wide from my seat and pulled back.

_ “Jesus, Gwen!”  _ Jai’s voice was pure panic and more than that, she used my full name,  _ “I think we fucked up!” _

And then the line went dead.

~~~~~

**Jai**

The pain that radiated up my arm was one thing, but the fact that I could barely move my fingers was another. The bastard had definitely gotten a good hit in and I was pretty sure, as I cradled my lower left against my chest, that my radius was broken, or at least fractured. Fighting back the darkness that the blinding pain was causing… definitely broken… I listened to Jody trade blows with the thing. My goggles were gone, somewhere in the darkness, so I couldn’t see a damn thing, but I could hear Gwen hollering at me through the haze.

_ “What do you mean you think you fucked up?” _ Her voice was snapping in my right ear, and slowly it focused, sounding less like a train whistle underwater and more like the panicked voice it should have.  _ “Lancing, you better answer me!” _

“Oh, man,” I moaned, because those were the only two words I could come up with as the sound inside my head turned to a ringing more than a whistle. Must have hit my head. The sounds of Jody lashing out, probably with her knife, echoed through the cave. “I don’t know what the hell this thing is, G.”

_ “Describe it!” _ her voice was full of panic, but her tone was just gruff enough to get me moving, trying to focus my thoughts on what I had seen.

“Uh, sharp teeth, but not like vamps,” I struggled. “Like they were filed down.”

_ “Like dogs? From chewing on bones?” _

“Yeah, maybe,” I shifted, kicked out with my feet as I tried to find a foothold to help me stand up. Shifting my arm only made the whole thing blurry and that’s saying something in the dark. “It’s eyes were white, or… no, the iris was pale blue… ish?”

_ “There’s no pigment, like it’s blind?” _

“Yeah… yes.” I managed to shift, leaning my left side heavily against the wall once I was up. I closed my eyes, trying to focus to hear in the dark. “It…” the images began to get fuzzy again, “it’s fingers were long, like claws and the nails were really thick.”

_ “I know what it is.” _ She snapped, and for some reason that took all the fight out of me, not that I didn’t want to go shoot the bastard, but the stress of how and with what was suddenly gone and all I had to concentrate on was getting rid of it.

“So, share your thoughts, oh wise one.”

_ “It’s a Troglodyte.” _

“That literally means “cave-dweller,” that doesn’t help at all.”

_ “But in this case, it’s one of  _ our _ kind of dwellers.” _

She had a point. “Okay, the thing has its own armor in the way of some leathery skin, what do you want me to do, moisturize it to death?” 

_ “Shoot it.” _

Why the darkness went suddenly quiet, my question bounced off the walls. “What?”

_ “Shoot... IT!”  _

Jody’s flashlight surged to light, illuminating the ugly, naked, and withered monster that came barreling down on me and I felt my eyes go large as I drew my gun from where I managed to tuck it before the damn thing had snapped my arm in two. Between one breath and the next, I raised it, took aim and fired a shot straight through the center if its eyes.

It fell in a lump, black blood flowing freely and I glanced up at Jody, who was quickly approaching. She asked me something that went straight over my head as I felt the adrenaline rush up on me.

“Shot it.” I repeated quietly, nodding at Jody’s questions, not at all sure I was giving the right response before she grabbed her cell and called… someone.

_ “Jai?”  _ Gwen’s voice brought me back to the present.

A “yeah” squeaked out as I stumbled back towards the wall. Jody’s arm was on my shoulder as I fought to keep focus.

_ “I’m sending help to your coordinates, just stay put.”  _ Her voice was more a muffled sound, slowly sinking underwater once again and I nodded, probably shouldn’t have with the room suddenly spinning.  _ “Jai, are you listening to me?”  _ Wow, Gwen was yelling.  _ “JAI!” _

The world suddenly went black.

~~~~~

**Gwen**

I nudged Jai’s shoulder as I walked passed, getting her to raise her head just a little bit as I set the plate of hot grits down in front of her. She loved them, would pass up any kind of oatmeal for breakfast if she could just have a bowl of them, but her eyes were still a little far away as she reached out and grabbed the spoon.

It had been two days since Northampton, Jody had stuck around to get her settled and to talk over the case with me but she seemed a little out of sorts.

“Headache?” I asked softly, picking up a fork as Dan brought a hot plate of pancakes.

“No,” she whispered, finally picking up the spoon.

“Sensory issues?”

“No.” A short answer this time.

“Cognitive issues?”

“Gwen,” she deadpanned, which got me to look up at those blue eyes staring me down, “I’m not hurt, Doc says it wasn’t a concussion, can you please stop mother henning me?”

“Sure, as soon as you stop moping.” I shrugged and went back to my plate.

“I’m not…” she took a breath and stabbed the bowl. “I was so far off.”

Oh, that’s what it was. “No one knew there was a Troglodyte living in the tunnel system. No one would have believed it would have lived nearly a century either.”

“I should have known it was something other than what we had. None of it made any sense.”

I put down the fork, folded my hands together and placed them on the table. “You’re right.” She scoffed, and shook her head. “It didn’t make any sense, which is why we didn’t know, but it’s handled and done, case closed.”

“Jody coulda…”

“But she didn’t and neither did you.”

“This is why I hunt alone.” She shook her head, mumbling under her breath as her phone rang. I should have guessed it was the fact that she had put her partner in trouble that was getting her down, it was always the same. “Really?”

“What?” My curiosity piqued and I watched her slide the small device over with the text screen open… from Dean. He was listing off another case they had stumbled on and this time, they were looking for help. I raised a brow as she raised the casted arm. “Well, this could get interesting.”

And I watched her smirk as she nodded and went back to her grits while I grabbed the phone and sent a simple text.

_ Where? _

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
